What type of selvage is best to use for patchwork?

How-to Questions
1

I’m rather new to knitting (at least at attempting anything more than simple garter stitch scarves and blankets!) so I apologize if this is a silly question…But I have decided that I would like to create a patchwork blanket using multiple squares of various stitches and colours. I have found many different videos about how to seam two pieces together, but I’m just curious as to what type of selvage is it that’s ideal to use for a quilt/patchwork project?

Thanks in advance!

2

What do you mean by selvedge? The edge treatment around the square? Garter or seed stitch make nice edges.

3

I will be knitting each square individually (or possibly in strips) but I wasn’t sure what the best edge was to use if I intend on seaming the pieces together (the whole realm of seaming pieces together is new to me).

Thanks for the quick response :slight_smile:

4

Welcome to KH. I would use a stockinette edge stitch and would’nt slip the first stitch. If you use mattress stitch, stockinette is the easiest edge to stitch together IME. If you decide to use another method it should still work well. HTH

5

Thank you for your responses, ladies. I am unsure if I shoul.d even be doing any sort of selvedge stitch, to be honest. I intend on making an afghan made out of strips of various squares of different stitches (eg. honeycomb brioche, bamboo stitch, etc). I have never seamed items together before, however. Would using a selvedge (I prefer the chain edge) make binding these strips together at the end of the day easier or would it make for a more noticeable seam between the strips?

Thanks!

6

Mattress stitch is one of the neatest ways to stitch seams together but there are several other methods. I like the idea of the stockinette stitch edge since it gives you an obvious place to seam. The seam will be practically invisible on the right side but will show on the wrong side of the blanket.


This sounds like a great project for learning different stitch patterns and just having fun with yarn, colors and knitting.

7

Thanks for the feedback, salmonmac. So just to clarify, a stockinette stitch edge does not involve any special slipping or anything (as is the nature with the selvedges I’m familiar with). I just knit or purl the entire row?

8

Just work the the edge (selvedge) stitches. You can knit the one edge stitch on the left edge and the one on the right edge on the RS (right side) row and purl both sts on the WS (wrong side) row.
You would work whatever pattern stitch you’re doing across the rest of the row.
If you’re going to knit squares, you could knit or purl across the entire first row and last row. I like your idea of knitting in strips though, because it cuts down on seaming.

9

You will do a selvege stitch. The first and last stitches in the row make the selvedge. Selvege stitches can be slipped or not per your personal preference. If you have an edge stitch that isn’t part of your pattern doing it in stockinette as salmonmac explains will give you the nice edge for stitching - and even if it ends up not looking so nice it will disappear on the front - and then your seams won’t eat up any of your pattern stitches. I look forward to seeing pictures … you will post pictures, won’t you?

Disclaimer: I wouldn’t slip the first or last stitch but I don’t know whether that has any effect on the seaming.